In U.A.E., ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ Gets Sheep’s Clothing

The Wolf of Wall Street has caused a stir across the world for the film’s excessive use of expletives and depiction of drug use, sex and midget tossing.

So it might come as little surprise then that more than 40 minutes of the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, has been cut for viewers in the United Arabic Emirates – an Islamist state that has built itself a reputation for being more liberal than most of its Arab peers.

Whole scenes were taken out of the Martin Scorsese-directed movie, including a particularly raucous trip to Las Vegas that included a plane full of prostitutes. The F-word has also been removed where possible, creating an almost constant jerking of the screen as one frame has been spliced into another.

Censorship of films is usually the business of the National Media Council in the U.A.E. Yet, for this movie, the council says the distributor had already cut the film. “We did not touch the film,” said Juma Al Leem, who considers a film’s content at the NMC. “The distributor cut the film.”

The move by distributor Gulf Film is puzzling. Out of the Furnace, one of the distributor’s other films currently being shown, has some equally graphic scenes of drug use, as well as the odd profanity. Gulf Film declined to comment.

Sultan Al Qassemi, a well-known Emirati commentator on Arab affairs and culture, believes the guidelines on censorship need to be clearer in the U.A.E. as the situation has deteriorated in the past two to three years, he said.

There exists a “dichotomy” between the popular film festivals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi where films are shown uncensored, said Mr. Al Qassemi, and in the cinema, where regulators are cutting out even mild expletives and Gulf-wide distributors are editing films to cater for the “lowest common denominator” in the region, usually Qatar or Oman. Saudi Arabia has banned movie theatres in the kingdom.

“It’s almost reached the point where people avoid going to a movie that’s targeted at an adult audience,” said Mr. Al Qassemi.

As for Scorsese’s latest blockbuster, the film turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing across the U.A.E.